For Kids, How Much Screen Time Is Too Much Screen Time?

Exposure to screens before children turn one could lead to developmental delays emerging between the ages of two and four, according to new research published in JAMA Pediatrics.

In the study, children who were exposed to longer amounts of screen time displayed more signs of developmental delays in the areas of communication and problem-solving.

Authors from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, looked at five different markers of developmental delays — communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem-solving and personal and social skills — to determine whether one area of development was more heavily affected by screen time. They also factored in screen exposure time, divided into four categories ranging from less than one hour to more than four hours.

“Because there are several domains of child development, its association with screen time may be domain specific. However, most previous studies examined a single measure as an outcome,” the authors wrote in the paper.

They analyzed more than 7,000 children in Japan at two different points in time, at two and four years of age. To that note, the authors stated that “it is essential to examine whether screen time is continuously associated with child development domains at multiple time points and, if so, which ones.”

Through this, the authors were able to compare risks unique to age and different types of developmental delays to the amount of screen exposure that preceded them.

Communication and problem-solving skills were the most sensitive to screen time exposure. Regardless of how much time the children spent on screens — whether it was less than one hour or more than four hours — their risk of showing deficits in communication and problem-solving were heightened at least slightly, though the greater the screen time, the greater the risk of delays. This finding was consistent at both timepoints when the children were assessed.

Likewise, children who spent four or more hours per day watching screens, which was reported in just 4% of the group, before the age of one showed more deficits in fine motor skills and personal and social skills by age two. 

The study also explored how things like maternal age at the time of giving birth, household income and education level might affect the use of screens among children. Their data suggest that as household income increased, screen time decreased. The same relationship was observed in education levels, with the children of mothers with college educations utilizing screens less compared to those who had not completed higher education.

Although the researchers did not delve deeper into what those correlations could signal, the findings are in line with prior research into screen times that hinted at systemic issues that families with less resources face.

Researchers were not able to collect information on the quality of the screen time the children engaged in, for example, whether the material was education- or entertainment-based. This is important, the researchers noted, because there is ample evidence to suggest that introducing high-quality screen time in children aged 18 to 24 months can increase language skills.

Acknowledging that today’s environment can make it difficult to effectively monitor all forms of screen time, the authors stated that “it may be beneficial to identify and limit the screen time aspects that are associated with developmental delays while taking advantage of the educational aspects.”